S
SooperSmurph
Today we lay down the framework for a side by side with three types of soil, no other variations.
Long story short, there are rumors of Monsanto buying or having bought out out Foxfarm, and I find myself wishing to have alternatives available should this become the case.
Three plants will be grown in each soil type, all in the same 20g nursery pots, three additional plants will be run alongside the Ocean Forest control group with the addition of the agricultural limestone we're using in the Black Gold because this brand does not include a ph buffer. The limestone will be run at a rate of 167g per cubic foot.
Amazon Bloom has the most ingredients, while Black Gold has the fewest.
Ocean Forest Ingredients: Composted forest humus, perlite, Spaghnum peat, bat guano, fish, crab, shrimp and Norwegian kelp meals, premium earthworm castings and oyster shells.
Amazon Bloom Ingredients: peat moss, forest compost, coconut coir, feather meal, bat guano, marinebird fossilized guano, steamed bone meal, sulfate of potash, magnesia from langbenite, neem meal, earthworm castings, sea kelp (ascophyllum nodosum), humate ore (leonardite), oyster shell lime (not listed on the bag, but on the msds / online ingredients list).
Black Gold Incredients: Spaghnum peat moss and compost, perlite / pumice, earthworm castings.
All plants will be run on the same basic program, shown here:
Target Ph range is 5.8-6.3.
Cutting Machine filled at a rate of 2ml / gallon with GH Rapidstart.
Machine is a GH Rainforest 36, i'll be doing a side by side after the new year with this machine and an EZ Cloner.
Transplanted into 2 liter nursery pots, roots dressed with Plant Success Granular, watered with DEM Lush Roots 840 at 7.5ml per gallon.
Veg plants will be fed once weekly with Fox Farm Grow Big at 7.5ml per gallon.
Transplanted into 10g nursery pots, dressed and watered at same rates as previous.
After transition to flower, plants will be given the Fox Farm soil feeding schedule twice weekly at 1/2 strength, minus the Bush Doctor product line, with the additions of DEM Fat Flowers at 5mls per gallon throughout, and HCO Gravity at 1ml per gallon during weeks 6-8.
This SbS is slated to start just after Christmas, unless you fellows present critiques which require extensive adjustment.
The strain which is being slated for this experiment is:
Smurphberry Jam, my own little bit of work with Dr. Atomic's NLxBB as a base, S2 (2nd self-pollinated) generation.
Haven't done this kind of nerdy growing since college, fun times ahead!
Study Finished 7/17/2013
Long story short, there are rumors of Monsanto buying or having bought out out Foxfarm, and I find myself wishing to have alternatives available should this become the case.
Three plants will be grown in each soil type, all in the same 20g nursery pots, three additional plants will be run alongside the Ocean Forest control group with the addition of the agricultural limestone we're using in the Black Gold because this brand does not include a ph buffer. The limestone will be run at a rate of 167g per cubic foot.
Amazon Bloom has the most ingredients, while Black Gold has the fewest.
Ocean Forest Ingredients: Composted forest humus, perlite, Spaghnum peat, bat guano, fish, crab, shrimp and Norwegian kelp meals, premium earthworm castings and oyster shells.
Amazon Bloom Ingredients: peat moss, forest compost, coconut coir, feather meal, bat guano, marinebird fossilized guano, steamed bone meal, sulfate of potash, magnesia from langbenite, neem meal, earthworm castings, sea kelp (ascophyllum nodosum), humate ore (leonardite), oyster shell lime (not listed on the bag, but on the msds / online ingredients list).
Black Gold Incredients: Spaghnum peat moss and compost, perlite / pumice, earthworm castings.
All plants will be run on the same basic program, shown here:
Target Ph range is 5.8-6.3.
Cutting Machine filled at a rate of 2ml / gallon with GH Rapidstart.
Machine is a GH Rainforest 36, i'll be doing a side by side after the new year with this machine and an EZ Cloner.
Transplanted into 2 liter nursery pots, roots dressed with Plant Success Granular, watered with DEM Lush Roots 840 at 7.5ml per gallon.
Veg plants will be fed once weekly with Fox Farm Grow Big at 7.5ml per gallon.
Transplanted into 10g nursery pots, dressed and watered at same rates as previous.
After transition to flower, plants will be given the Fox Farm soil feeding schedule twice weekly at 1/2 strength, minus the Bush Doctor product line, with the additions of DEM Fat Flowers at 5mls per gallon throughout, and HCO Gravity at 1ml per gallon during weeks 6-8.
This SbS is slated to start just after Christmas, unless you fellows present critiques which require extensive adjustment.
The strain which is being slated for this experiment is:
Smurphberry Jam, my own little bit of work with Dr. Atomic's NLxBB as a base, S2 (2nd self-pollinated) generation.
Haven't done this kind of nerdy growing since college, fun times ahead!
Final Numbers
Buds were weighed after an overnight in a storage tub with 2 humidipacks mixed in, so the numbers here should reflect saleable weight.
Hash Trim was weighed after spending 2 days spread across a tarp in a room where the an average humidty was 22% or less.
Amazon Bloom
Buds: 366 grams
Hash Trim: 30 grams
Average per Plant: 122 grams
Black Gold
Buds: 467 grams
Hash Trim: 27 grams
Average per Plant: 156 grams
Ocean Forest
Buds: 470 grams
Hash Trim: 44 grams
Average per plant: 157 grams
All decimals are rounded to the nearest whole gram.
Taste Test
Three jars were delivered to a house that is occupied by various DJs, musicians, and hangers on who consume a lot of high quality cannabis.
The jars were labeled with stickers of different colors, and the only information given to the samplers with respect to the buds was that each jar was in fact different.
They were asked to rank the jars on appearance, potency, and flavor.
The results are as follows:
Appearance:
1st Black Gold
2nd Ocean Forest
3rd Amazon Bloom
Potency:
1st Ocean Forest
2nd Amazon Bloom
3rd Black Gold
Flavor:
1st Black Gold
2nd Amazon Bloom
3rd Ocean Forest
The Amazon made up partially for its poor yields with higher quality, further investigation with better grades of perlite is definitely warranted.
Study Finished 7/17/2013
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